was brought to him, he fainted away, and was never seen to smile from that moment to the day of his death,.which followed some time after at St. Denis, a little town in Normandy, from eating too plentifully of lampreys, a dish he was particularly fond of. He died in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign, leaving, by will, his daughter Matilda heiress of all his dominions.

No

STEPHEN. Nonnan.

O sooner was the king known to be dead, than Stephen, son of Adela, the king's sister, and the count of Blois, conscious of his own power and influence, resolved to secure to himself the possession of what he so long desired. He speedily hastened from Normandy, and arriving at London, was immediately saluted king by all the lower ranks of people. Being thus secure of the people, his next step was to gain over the clergy; and, for that purpose, his brother, the bishop of Winchester, exerted all his influence among them with good success. Thus was Stephen made king by one of those speedy revolutions which ever mark the barbarity of a state in which they are customary.

The first acts of a usurper are always popular. Stephen, in order to secure his tottering throne, passed a charter, granting several privileges to the different orders of the state. To the nobility, a permission to hunt in their own forests; to the clergy, a speedy filling of all vacant benefices; and to the

people, a restoration of the laws of Edward the Confessor. To fix himself still more securely, he took possession of the royal treasures at Winchester, and had his title ratified by the pope with a part of the money.

It was not long, however, that Matilda delayed asserting her claim to the crown. She landed upon the coast of Sussex, assisted by Robert earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king. The whole of Matilda's retinue, upon this occasion, amounted to no more than one hundred and forty knights, who immediately took possession of Arundle castle; but the nature of her claim soon increased the number of her partisans, and her forces every day seemed to gain ground upon those of her antagonist. Mean time, Stephen, being assured of her arrival, flew to besiege Arundel castle, where she had taken refuge, and where she was protected by the queen dowager, who secretly favoured her pretensions. This fortress was too feeble to promise a long defence; and would have been soon taken, had it not been represented to the king, that, as it was a castle belonging to the queen dowager, it would be an infringement on the respect due to her to attempt taking it by force. There was a spirit of generosity mixed with the rudeness of the times, that unaccountably prevailed in many transactions. Stephen permitted Matilda to come forth in safety, and had her conveyed with security to Bristol, another fortress equally strong with that from whence he permitted her to retire. It would be tedious to relate the various skirmishes on either side, in pursuance of their respective pretensions; it will suffice to say, that Matilda's forces increased every day, while her antagonist seemed every hour to become weaker; and a victory, gained by the queen, threw Stephen from the throne, and exalted Matilda in his room. Matilda was crowned at Winchester with all imaginable solemnity.

Matilda, however, was unfit for government. She affected to treat the nobility with a degree of disdain, to which they had long been unaccustonied; so that the fickle nation once more began to pity their deposed king, and repent the steps they had taken in her favour. The bishop of Winchester was not remiss in fomenting these discontents; and when he found the people ripe for a tumult, detached a party of his friends and vassals to block up the city of London, where the queen then resided. At the same time, measures were taken to instigate the Londoners to a revolt, and to seize her person. Matilda, having timely notice of this conspiracy, fled to Winchester, whither the bishop, still her secret enemy, followed her, watching an op

portunity to ruin her cause. His party was soon sufficiently strong to bid the queen open defiance, and to besiege her in the very place where she first received his benediction. There she continued for some time, but the town being pressed by a famine, she was obliged to escape; while her brother, the earl of Gloucester, endeavouring to follow, was taken prisoner, and exchanged for Stephen, who still continued a captive. Thus a sudden revolution once more took place: Matilda was deposed, and obliged to seek for safety in Oxford. Stephen was again recognized as king, and taken from the dungeon to be replaced on his throne.

But he was now to enter the lists with a new opposer, who was every day coming to maturity, and growing more formidable: this was Henry, the son of Matilda, who had now reached the sixteenth year; and gave the greatest hopes of being one day a valiant leader, and a consummate politician.

With the wishes of the people in his favour, young Henry was resolved to reclaim his hereditary kingdom, and to dispute once more Stephen's usurped pretensions; and accordingly made an invasion of England, where he was immediately joined by almost all the barons of the kingdom.

In the mean time, Stephen, alarmed at the power and popularity of his young rival, tried every method to anticipate the purpose of his invasion; but finding it impossible to turn the torrent, he was obliged to have recourse to treaty. It was. therefore agreed, by all parties, that Stephen should reign during his life; and that justice should be administered in his name. That Henry should, on Stephen's death, succeed to the kingdom; and William, Stephen's son, should inherit Boulogne and his patrimonial estate. After all the barons had sworn to this treaty, which filled the whole kingdom with joy, Henry evacuated England; and Stephen returned to the peaceable enjoyment of his throne. His reign, however, was soon after terminated by his death, which happened about a year after the treaty, at Canterbury, where he was interred.

THE
HE first act of Henry's government gave the people a
happy omen of his future wise administration. Conscious
of his power, he began to correct those abuses, and to resume
those privileges, which had been extorted from the weakness
or the credulity of his predecessors. He immediately dismissed
all those mercenary soldiers who committed infinite disorders
in the nation. He resumed many of those benefactions which
had been made to churches and monasteries in the former
reigns. He gave charters to several towns, by which the citi-
zens claimed their freedom and privileges, independent of any
superior but himself. These charters were the groundwork
of English liberty. The struggles which had before this time
been,

of Eether the king, or the barons, or the clergy, should be

despotic over the people, now began to assume a new aspect; and a fourth order, namely, that of the more opulent of the people, began to claim a share in administration. Thus was the feudal government at first impaired; and liberty began to be more equally diffused throughout the nation.

Henry being thus become the most powerful prince of his age, the undisputed monarch of England, possessed of more than a third of France, and having humbled the barons that would circumscribe his power, he might naturally be expected to reign with very little opposition for the future. But it happened otherwise. He found the severest mortifications from a quarter, where he least expected resistance.

The famous Thomas à Becket, the first man of English extraction who had, since the Norman conquest, risen to any share of power, was the son of a citizen of London. Having received his early education in the schools of that metropolis, he resided some time at Paris; and, on his return, became clerk in the sheriff's office. From that humble station he rose, through the gradations of office, until at last he was made archbishop of Canterbury, a dignity second only to that of the king.

No sooner was he fixed in this high station, which rendered him for life the second person in the kingdom, than he endeavoured to retrieve the character of sanctity, which his former levities might have appeared to oppose. He was in his person the most mortified man that could be seen. He wore sackcloth next his skin. He changed it so seldom, that it was filled with dirt and vermin. His usual diet was bread, his drink water; which he rendered further unpalateable, by the mixture of unsavoury herbs. His back was mangled with frequent discipline. He every day washed on his knees the feet of thirteen beggars. Thus pretending to sanctity, he set up for being a defender of the privileges of the clergy, which had för a long time been enormous, and which it was Henry's aim to abridge.

An opportunity soon offered, that gave him a popular pretext for beginning his intended reformation. A man in holy orders had debauched the daughter of a gentleman in Worcestershire; and then murdered the father, to prevent the effects of his resentment. The atrociousness of the crime produced a spirit of indignation among the people: and the king insisted that the assassin should be tried by the civil magistrate. This Becket opposed, alledging the privileges of the church.

concurrence.

In order to determine this matter, the king summoned a general council of the nobility and prelates at Clarendon, to whom he submitted this great and important affair, and desired their These councils seem at that time convened rather to give authority to the king's decrees, than to enact laws that were to bind their posterity. A number of regulations were there drawn up, which were afterwards well known under the title of the Constitutions of Clarendon, and were then voted without opposition. By these regulations it was enacted, that clergymen accused of any crime should be tried in the civil courts; that laymen should not be tried in the spiritual courts, except by legal and reputable witnesses. These, with some others of less consequence, or implied in the above, to the number of sixteen, were readily subscribed to by all the bishops